610 miles, 11.3 riding hours.

After having an incredibly exhausting weekend, I didn't want to commit to a very long day today. Still, I knew it was mostly a transit day- over 400 miles before I'd reach the first fun road on the trip, Lolo Pass.

I left Portland right at 8am. I was a little on the cold side, so I set the grips and vest to "well done". That helped, though it was distracting me from being fully awake. So I pulled over near Mosier, which is an hour from home. I found a nice side road and pulled off the highway to take a little nap.

Unfortunately, about 10 minutes later a lady pulled up, talking on the phone, and opened the door so her two small dogs could take a leak. Of course, they were much more interested in ME than in doing their business. The lady was still on the phone, eventually she drove down the road a little ways so the dogs would follow the car and do their business. Pretty inconsiderate lady, even if the little black poodle loved me.

So, that was the end of my short nap. It was enough- I felt much more alert. The rest of the slab over was straightforward. I went through Pendleton and up to Hwy12.

One of the unexpected bonuses of the trip happened here. A lot of the eastern Washington wheat was being harvested. I was able to park on the edge of a field and look at it up close. It seems like a little thing, but it was really neat to walk in the wheat, see how tall it was, feel what the kernels felt like, and so on.

Next, I went over through Clarkston/Lewiston and then up to Lolo Pass. It's been at least 3-4 years since I've done Lolo Pass, yet I remembered the road, the towns, and most of the wide places in the road along Hwy12. That was weird; I wouldn't have expected to remember ANY of it.

When I came off Lolo Pass, it was still early enough, so I rode on through Missoula and onto I-90. There was a few Hells Angels, displaying their colors, at a stop light. I waved, they desperately tried to not wave or look at my bike- but I could see their eyes rotating through their skulls trying to grok the various country flags and stickers on my cases. Heh.

I continued on to Drummond, gassed up, then rode down a dirt road to scout a tent location. I found a nice little spot that is basically on the shoulder of the dirt road, so I parked the bike in the ditch (look ma, no sidestand required!), set up my little camp, ate a meal, and settled in for bed.